Tag Archives: new product idea

The Slice-n-Stand is designed to keep leftover cakes slides standing upright during transport, delivery, and storage. The stand fits into a standard cake storage container to provide support to the leftover slices of cake. The stand is designed to prevent the cake slices from slipping, sliding, and tipping. The “L” shaped stand includes an adjustable “hinge” which can accommodate different sizes of cake slices. The hinge locks into place to keep the cake slices stable. Additional hinges can be added to provide support for multiple and varied slices of cake. When the party is done and the guests are headed home, there always seems to be leftover cake. Usually you might wrap the slices in plastic wrap, but that makes a mess and the icing sticks to the plastic. Or, you might use storage containers, but usually this means stacking the slices on top of each other, crushing the cake, and results in the need for cleaning more dishes and storage containers. The Slice-n-Stand keeps leftover cake slices upright and prevents the cake from slipping, sliding, and tipping. No additional storage containers or plastic wrap is needed to keep the cake fresh and in tact. The Slice-n-Stand is designed to fit into a standard cake storage container, so after the party, you can just slide the Stand underneath the leftover cake and keep it safe and in tact while you return home or store the leftovers for later. If you want to keep a small portion of cake, the Slice-n-Stand adjusts to accommodate these slices using a specialized ‘hinge’. The hinge locks into place to provide additional support.

Barbi Honeycutt made it on this show. She is one of the inventors from my UMI Inventors Meetup Group and one of my clients. She got a 94% Thumbs up from the listening audience. She has more views and shares of her show as shown on Facebook then any other for her week and for the month of January.Thanks for your support.

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Welcome to TIME’s annual round-up of the best inventions making the world better, smarter and—in some cases—a little more fun.

The ‘Hoverboard’ Scooter

Gregory Reid for TIMEDeveloped by multiple brandsPrices varyPart Segway, part skateboard, the self-balancing scooter—generally known as a hoverboard, even though it doesn’t actually hover—is easily the year’s most viral product, drawing fans like Justin Bieber, Jimmy Fallon and Kendall Jenner. Once someone hops on, the device uses a pair of electric gyroscopes (one under each pad) to balance automatically, allowing users to speed forward, backward and around by slightly shifting their body weight. That enables all kinds of fun stunts, ranging from hallway races to motorized dance routines. Maxx Yellin, co-founder of PhunkeeDuck, one of more than 20 companies making versions of the device, sees larger implications. “It could evolve as a new form of transportation for cities and colleges,” Yellin says (though British authorities recently caused a stir by outlawing their use on public sidewalks and streets). But convenience comes at a cost: prices range from $350 to $1,700, depending on the brand and its features.

The Underground Park

Cameron NeilsonThe Lowline LabDeveloped by Dan Barasch and James Ramsey“It’s not like any park you’ve ever seen before,” says Dan Barasch of the Lowline, an abandoned trolley terminal in New York City’s Lower East Side that he and architect James Ramsey are trying to turn into an acre of lush green space, replete with flowering plants and areas to relax in the sun. The key: a “remote skylight” dish system that captures sunlight from surrounding rooftops and funnels it underground via fiber-optic cable; once there, it’s beamed out via reflective dome, enabling plants to grow. To prove the technology works, Barasch and Ramsey opened the Lowline Lab; it’s a prototype version of the final park, which is still several approvals—and $70 million in funding—away from completion. But Barasch, who attracted more than 3,300 backers on Kickstarter, is undeterred. Even forgotten places, he says, can still be used “for public good.” —Julie Shapiro

The Sensor That Sniffs Out Gluten

Gregory Reid for TIME6SensorLabs’ Nima / $199Available for preorder atNimaSensor.comFor the millions of Americans with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity, eating out is often anxiety-ridden—any menu item might contain traces of the protein, which is off-limits. The Nima sensor, which starts shipping early next year, would work to put their minds at ease by allowing them to test any kind of food or drink in as little as two minutes. After a sample is dropped into the well of the device, a proprietary antibody (loaded in a disposable cartridge) mines it for traces of gluten. If they exist, a frowning face lights up; if not, a smile appears. “My hope is that people are going to be able to eat socially” without accidentally getting sick, says Shireen Yates, a 6SensorLabs co-founder who is gluten-sensitive. The firm also hopes to apply its technology to detect other food allergens, including peanuts and dairy. —Alice Park

Bionic Ears

Gregory Reid for TIMEDoppler Labs Here Active Listening Earbuds / $249Waitlist open at Hereplus.meIf you’re stuck somewhere with unbearable noise, you essentially have two options: plug your ears, or leave. But what if you could isolate the most grating sound and mute it? Or just lower the volume, much as you would on a TV? That’s the promise of the Here Active Listening system, a groundbreaking set of earbuds from New York–based Doppler Labs. Unlike hearing aids, which amplify or decrease all noises at once, Here’s processor syncs with a smartphone app, so users can handpick which frequencies they want to filter. That means you could stand on a subway platform and have a normal conversation as a train screeches by, or even tune out a crying baby on a plane. “It’s augmented audio reality,” says Doppler Labs CEO Noah Kraft, who initially developed Here for musicians and concertgoers before pivoting to a general audience. The first earbuds will ship in December. —Alex Fitzpatrick

The Superior Stethoscope

Gregory Reid for TIMEEko CoreDeveloped by Connor Landgraf, Jason Bellet and Tyler CrouchIf there is one aspect of medicine that’s more art than science, it’s the way doctors listen to ­heartbeats—­trusting their fallible ears and memory to detect aberrations over time. Not so with Eko Core. Once the $199 smart adapter is attached to a stethoscope, it streams heartbeat data to the cloud so physicians can download it to a smartphone. From there, a companion app can analyze the audio and compare it to previous recordings, which may help doctors detect murmurs, heart-valve abnormalities and other conditions that “our ears are not able to,” says Dr. John Chorba, a cardiologist (and mentor to one of the inventors) who’s leading an Eko trial at the University of California, San Francisco. If the device works as planned—early signs are positive—it could not only improve overall care but also drastically reduce the need for expensive tests like echocardiograms. —Alice Park

The Headset That Helps You Hack Life

Gregory Reid for TIMEMicrosoft HoloLensDeveloper edition available early 2016Virtual-reality headsets, like the Oculus Rift, create escapes. Put one on, and you’re suddenly swimming with dolphins or fighting in the Battle of Waterloo.Microsoft’s HoloLens, by contrast, augments reality—overlaying holograms and data onto existing surroundings, so you’re not “confined to the virtual world,” as designer Alex Kipman puts it. Imagine gamers defending their homes from robot invaders, engineers manipulating 3-D models or surgeons following directions “on” the human body. Early tests indicate all are possible. Already the HoloLens is being used by NASA to mimic Mars’ terrain in labs and by medical students to dissect virtual bodies. —Alex Fitzpatrick

Power Pasta

Gregory Reid for TIMEBanza Chickpea Pasta / $4+ per 8 oz. boxAvailable at EatBanza.com“When people think of pasta, they almost always think, I ate way too much and now I feel like crap,” says Brian Rudolph. Not so with his brand, which is made from chickpeas instead of wheat. That simple switch—in a recipe perfected over 10 months of trial and error—has yielded a healthy twist on the al dente dinner. Banza, shorthand for garbanzo pasta, has double the protein and four times the fiber of traditional pasta, and far fewer carbs; it’s also gluten-free. And to those who may question how good it tastes, consider the sales. Banza launched in two U.S. stores last year; now it’s in 1,700, including Fairway markets, where it was recently the top-­selling pasta of any kind (including wheat). Now Rudolph and his brother Scott plan to reinvent products like pizza and cereal. “People want to eat better,” he says. “We see Banza as a true replacement, a more filling version of the food people love.” —Mandy Oaklander

The Desktop DNA Lab

Mark SerrJunoDeveloped by FluidigmIt can take a full day to “amplify” DNA, the technical term for making millions of copies of one strain so it can be compared with many others. Juno cuts that process to just three hours, freeing scientists to concentrate on actual ­analysis—a shift that makes it easier to match bone-marrow donors, find cures for genetic diseases and more. The key is Fluidigm’s proprietary microchip, which can amplify samples that are 1,000 times smaller than a drop of water. And the sleek, Yves Béhar–­designed aesthetic doesn’t hurt, either. “We see a lot of possibilities for clinical labs and hospitals,” says Marc Unger, a senior vice president at Fluidigm, of the $120,000 machine, which is now being used at academic and research labs. “We really want to help.” —Alexandra Sifferlin

Housing That Welcomes the Homeless

Iwan BaanStar ApartmentsDesigned by Michael MaltzanFor decades, housing for the homeless has too often meant transient shelters or warehouse-­like abodes. L.A.’s Star Apartments aims to buck that trend by design; it functions more like a minivillage than a single building, says Maltzan of his third collaboration with Skid Row Housing Trust, a local nonprofit. In addition to 102 prefabricated studios, which are ingeniously staggered into four terraced stories, Star Apartments offers a ground-floor medical clinic and, above that, a garden, an outdoor running track and space for classrooms. The goal, says Maltzan, is to make the residents of its 300-sq.-ft. units—who are handpicked by the county department of health ­services—feel “like they’re part of a dynamic and intimate community,” a strategy that can help people, especially those struggling with homelessness and substance-­abuse issues, re-­establish stability in their lives. —Richard Lacayo

The Transparent Truck

Martin Gee for TIMESafety TruckDeveloped by Samsung and Leo BurnettEvery year, thousands of people get hurt or die in traffic accidents, in part because their visibility gets blocked by a lumbering vehicle. This is especially true in Argentina, known for its winding, narrow roads. There, however, Samsung and ad agency Leo Burnett have partnered on a creative solution: a system that relays video footage from the front of a truck to four screens on its back, giving drivers a clear view of what’s ahead. During its initial test, the Safety Truck covered some 620 miles (1,000 km) over three days without incident. Now Samsung is refining the technology and working with Argentine officials to roll it out more broadly. “We believe this will change the history of road safety,” says Sang Jik Lee, president of Samsung Electronics Argentina. —Julie Shapiro

The Next-Gen Baby Monitor

Gregory Reid for TIMESproutling / $299Available for preorder atSproutling.com“Is my baby O.K.?” That’s the question Sproutling aims to answer—in real time—with its first product. Once in place, the Fitbit-like device can track an infant’s heart rate, body temperature, position and more, and notify parents, via mobile app, if there’s cause for alarm. (Though regular check-ins are still encouraged.) Once it learns a baby’s habits, Sproutling can also offer helpful predictions, like when he or she will wake up from a nap. “We want to get more understanding of how children behave as a whole,” says CEO Chris Bruce, a father of two. “That’s the holy grail.” —Sarah Begley

An Airport for Drones

Martin Gee for TIMEDrone PortDeveloped by Foster + Partners and Afrotech-EPFLAs Amazon, Google and others ramp up their drone-delivery tests, one question looms large: How will their home base function? For hints, the tech titans may well look to Rwanda, where workers will soon break ground on three “drone ports,” designed to make it easier to transport food, medical supplies, electronics, spare parts and other goods through the hilly countryside, where road travel is difficult. The Rwanda project “is a relatively modest beginning,” says Norman Foster, chairman of architecture firm Foster + Partners, which is leading the first phase of construction (scheduled to be completed in 2020). But, he adds, “it could be a catalyst,” helping to solve an array of pressing health issues and creating a model for other countries looking to regulate commercial drone use. —Sarah Begley

Period-Proof Underwear

Gregory Reid for TIMEThinx / $24+ per pairAvailable at Shethinx.comFor decades, women trying to avoid leaks or stains during menstruation have mainly had to rely on disposable pads, tampons and panty liners, which can be bulky and expensive. “But can’t underwear do the same thing, better?” wondered Miki and Radha Agrawal. That’s the idea behind Thinx, a line of thongs and panties that the twin sisters—alongside co-founder Antonia Dunbar and a team of manufacturers in Sri Lanka—have engineered to (mostly) replace traditional products. Each pair is washable, reusable and equipped with four layers of moisture-wicking, antimicrobial fabric. On heavier days, however, some women may need extra protection. “We always say, Know your flow,” says Miki. —Samantha Grossman

The Bed in a Box

Martin Gee for TIMECasper Mattress / $500+Available at Casper.comBuying a new mattress is a lot like purchasing a used car: stressful, confusing and likely to overwhelm you with options. “We want to cut the clutter,” says Philip Krim, CEO of Casper, one of many startups upending the sleep industry, including Leesa and Tuft & Needle. The model is simple: create one mattress style; up the comfort factor (using a mix of foams); set clear prices; and sell it online (cutting costs, so prices remain low). Once the mattress arrives—it’s vacuum-packed in a cardboard box—customers get a 100-day trial period during which they can return it for a full refund. But that rarely happens, says Krim. Casper’s sales are expected to exceed $75 million this year, making it a leader among its startup competitors.—Victor Luckerson

The Virtual Brush and Canvas

Gregory Reid for TIMEApple Pencil and iPad Pro / $99 and $799+, respectivelyAvailable at Apple.comIn the 450 years or so since its invention, the pencil has become so ubiquitous, it’s easy to forget how remarkable a technology it is. It can write at any angle. Shades get darker depending on how hard you press. Marks can be erased. Reproducing this functionality digitally has vexed computer engineers for years, which is what makes Apple’s latest effort so impressive. The Pencil allows users to draw, paint or write on a screen, just as they would a sheet of paper. And it works in tandem with the iPad Pro, a tablet faster than roughly 80% of laptops sold in the past year, so there’s no perceptible delay. That combination has already sparked chatter about new ways to create art, animations, blueprints and more. “You can rest your hand anywhere and [the iPad Pro screen] totally ignores it and it just reads the Pencil,” wrote Don Shank, an art director at Pixar, after testing the products in September. “It’s pretty amazing.” —Matt Vella

Shoes You Can ‘Tie’ With One Hand

Gregory Reid for TIMENike Flyease 8 / $130Available at Nike.comIn 2012, Matthew Walzer, a then high school junior with cerebral palsy, sent a note to Nike: “My dream is to go to the college of my choice,” he wrote, “without having to worry about someone coming to tie my shoes every day.” Sensing an opportunity to create a new footwear category—both for casual consumers who want a simpler way to tie sneakers and for people like Walzer, who need one—Nike dispatched a design team. This year, they unveiled their solution: the Flyease 8, a LeBron James–branded basketball shoe with a one-handed fastening mechanism that drew inspiration from “opening and closing a door,” says Tobie Hatfield, the shoe’s head designer. (To tie the shoe, wearers yank on a strap, which zips around the ankle as they pull.) There are still kinks to work out; pulling the strap too hard or too fast, for example, may cause the zipper to break. But Walzer, now a sophomore at Florida Gulf Coast University, has said the shoes have given him a great “sense of independence and accomplishment.” —Sean Gregory

The Pan That Teaches You To Cook

Gregory Reid for TIMEPantelligent / $199Available at Pantelligent.comHow hot should the pan be? When do I stir? It it done yet? If you’ve ever cooked an unfamiliar dish, chances are you’ve asked yourself one or more of these questions—­and ­Pantelligent aims to answer them all. Once you select a recipe from its smartphone app, the pan uses Bluetooth and a special heat sensor to offer real-time instructions on your screen, so you’ll know exactly when to flip a steak, for example, if you want it medium rare. When they first dreamed up the concept at MIT, Humberto Evans was a great cook, but Mike Robbins could barely fry an egg. Now, according to Evans, his former roommate whips up dishes like chicken piccata. “The food speaks for itself,” he says of how people can use the pans, which started shipping in October. —Samantha Grossman

The Book That Filters Water

Gregory Reid for TIMEThe Drinkable BookDeveloped by Teri DankovichAn estimated 663 million people globally do not have access to clean drinking water, in part because filtration is complicated and expensive. The Drinkable Book is neither: thanks to a special ­treatment—­developed with a team of scientists over several years—its pages double as water filters, killing over 99% of harmful bacteria during trials in Bangladesh, Ghana and South Africa. (They also list usage instructions.) Though research is still needed to determine whether the system can filter all contaminants, including viruses, Dankovich is optimistic; she says she is talking to partners who could help fund more testing and, eventually, large-scale production. —Sarah Begley

The Ocean Vacuum

Martin Gee for TIMEThe Ocean Cleanup ProjectDeveloped by Boyan SlatThere’s a glut of plastic trash in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that’s bigger than Texas—and growing. But the default removal process of chasing it with nets is both costly and time-­consuming. Instead, the Ocean Cleanup Project proposes a 62-mile-long (100 km) floating boom—at an estimated cost of $15 million—that would use natural currents to trap trash. (Its net drops roughly 10 ft., or 3 m, below the surface, shallow enough for fish to swim around.) If next year’s trials succeed, a full cleanup operation would aim to start in 2020; internal estimates suggest it could reduce the trash by 42% over 10 years. —Bryan Walsh

The Personal Pollution Detector

TZOATZOA Environmental Tracker / $139Available for preorder at Tzoa.comIn order to avoid potentially harmful pollutants and allergens, it helps to know about the air you’re breathing. That’s where Tzoa comes in. The stationary device, developed by electrician Kevin R. Hart, uses sensors to evaluate the atmosphere in any given area—­measuring factors like temperature, particulate matter (dust, pollen, mold, car exhaust) and UV ­exposure—and uploads that data to the cloud, so that institutions like Johns Hopkins can conduct air-­quality research. The company plans to launch wearable versions in May that offer a similar service, allowing consumers to chart specific walking routes, for example, if they want to avoid pockets of pollen. —Alexandra Sifferlin

The Ball That Teaches Kids to Code

Gregory Reid for TIMEHackaball / $85Available for preorder atHackaball.comAt a time when demand for computer scientists is skyrocketing, most Americans get little or no exposure to coding during their formative years. Made by Many, a New York City–based digital-­consulting firm, is trying to change that. Its Hackaball toy syncs with a mobile app, allowing users to program how and when it lights up—and then to see how those programs affect their lives in the real world. During one test, for example, kids set the ball to change colors at random intervals, then used it to play a hot-potato-style game. Enabling social ­scenarios—rather than a more isolated, screen-based introduction to ­coding—is the point of Hackaball, says William Owen, a strategy director at Made by Many. Its concept appears to be resonating: some 2,800 people backed the project on Kickstarter, raising $240,000. The first units ship in January. —Lisa Eadicicco

All-Access Virtual Reality

Gregory Reid for TIMEGoogle Cardboard / Price variesAvailable DIY or from third-party sellersMost of the hype surrounding virtual reality has rightly centered on premium headsets, such as the forthcoming Oculus Rift and HTC Vive (both of which will likely cost several hundred dollars). But Google Cardboard is revolutionary in its own right. Since its 2014 debut, the scrappy viewer—which can be built from scratch using free online instructions and relies on your smartphone screen for visuals—has emerged as a playground for virtual reality, priming brands and consumers alike for one of the world’s most anticipated technologies. There are Cardboard apps that let people drive cars (from Mercedes-Benz), attend concerts (from musician Jack White) and even play immersive video games. “We ask people, ‘Hey, put your smartphone in this piece of cardboard. It’s going to do something amazing,’” says Clay Bavor, a Google VP who oversees VR projects. “And then it does, and they’re shocked.” —Alex Fitzpatrick

The Musical Instrument That Anyone Can Master

Gregory Reid for TIMEArtiphon Instrument 1 / $399Available for preorder atArtiphon.comAn estimated 70% of adults want to play an instrument on a regular basis, but only 5% actually do, partly because it’s tough to choose just one to master. That’s not an issue with the Artiphon, which can mimic dozens of ­instruments—not just how they sound but also how they’re played. It can be strummed like a guitar or tapped like a piano. Or it can mix and match inputs, allowing users to bang banjo chords as if they were drumming. “We’re trying to pave a different path toward musical creativity,” says Jacob Gordon, an Artiphon co-founder, of the device (and its companion smartphone app), which raised $1.3 million on Kickstarter. —Victor Luckerson

The Meanest, Greenest Driving Machine

TeslaTesla Model X / est. $130,000Available 2016Tesla’s Model X, unveiled in September, marks a leap toward a reality in which electric cars aren’t simply exotic, but just as useful as their competition. The world’s first luxury electric SUV can go 250 miles on a charge, Tesla says, and haul seven passengers. It features futuristic back doors that open like the wings of a bird (up, not out). And the Model X is a blast to drive: it can hit 60 m.p.h. from a standstill in 3.2 seconds, and its battery pack gives it a low center of gravity, enabling sports-car-like handling. (That’s rare for any SUV, let alone one that runs on clean power.) For Tesla, more than one model is at stake. As CEO Elon Musk put it during the Model X unveiling: people need to know “that any kind of car can go electric.” —Matt Vella

The Toy That Talks Back

CognitoysCogniToys Dino / $120Available for preorder atCogniToys.comRather than repeating catchphrases, as “talking” toys have done for generations, this dinosaur taps IBM’s Watson technology to engage with kids ages 5 to 9 in a meaningful way. In addition to answering plain-language queries (like “How far away is the moon?”), the wi-fi-enabled figurine talks back and learns from kids’ responses—helping them hone their math skills, for example, by asking harder questions once they nail, “What is 2+2?” and “Can you count to 10?” The trick, according to CogniToys CEO Donald Coolidge, is to make educational development seem like a “cool, fun experience.” “That’s kind of the best toy possible,” he says. —Sarah Begley

Throughout recorded history most people who have wanted a household article have bought or bartered it from someone else – in past times an artisan or trader, more recently a seller of mass-produced products. With few exceptions (such as some clothing) it is rare that any of us make such articles for ourselves these days. That may soon change. Thirty years ago only dedicated enthusiasts would print their own photographs or edit and reproduce their own newsletters. The advent of the home computer, and in particular of low-cost high-quality printers, has now made such things simple and commonplace. Recent developments in producing affordable and hobbyist-friendly printers that can reproduce three-dimensional rather than just flat objects may mean that printing a toast-rack or a comb becomes as easy as printing a birthday card.

Any lawyer familiar with copyright and trade mark law can see, however, that printing one’s own birthday cards could, depending on the source and nature of the images used, infringe a number of intellectual property (IP) rights. Tempting as it may be to copy and use a picture of a well-known cartoon character, the resulting cards would very likely be an infringement of the copyright and perhaps trade marks owned by the relevant rights holder. But what if someone uses a printer capable of producing a mobile phone cover bearing such an image? Or reproducing a distinctively-styled piece of kitchenware? What about printing out a spare wing-mirror mount for your car? Do these uses infringe IP rights?

In the first part of this paper, we review the history of 3D printing and describe recent developments, including a project initiated by one of the authors to bring such printers into the home. We then examine the IP implications of personal 3D printing with particular reference to the bundle of rights that would typically be associated with a product that might be copied.

2. Personal 3D Printing: The Technical Aspects of Home Manufacturing

2.1. A Brief History of Manufacturing

People have three ways to make solid objects:

Cutting shapes out of a block of material;

Adding material piecemeal to build up shapes; and

Forming material that is liquid or plastic into the required shapes that then set.

All forming processes are secondary in the sense that the dies and moulds for them must initially be cut or built by one of the other two primary processes. Pre-industrial examples of these three are carving wood, bricklaying, and moulding a jelly.

Since the industrial revolution, an enormous number of variations on these three techniques have been developed and pre-industrial techniques have been much refined. Cutting and forming have, in particular, received a great deal of attention, resulting in sophisticated lathes and milling machines for cutting, and injection-moulding and die-casting machines for forming.

Just after the Second World War, John Parsons invented the idea of numerical control.1 In this, a manufacturing machine has all its parameters and variables continually controlled by a computer, allowing a previously hand-controlled process to be completely automated. A typical numerically-controlled machine tool is a lathe or a mill that can produce a complicated-shaped part from a simple block entirely without human intervention. This idea has been called the Second Industrial Revolution, and – directly or indirectly – it is the basis of virtually every engineering product that is made and sold today.

Since the creation of the microcomputer in the late 1970s the cost of numerically-controlled machine tools has fallen dramatically and it is now possible for organizations of modest means (such as schools) and also private individuals in the developed world to own lightweight ones. However, the vast majority of all these machines – heavy and light – are still cutting machines, as opposed to additive or moulding machines.

Numerically-controlled cutting machines suffer from an inherent problem: given a computer model of a shape to be made, it is extremely difficult to compute the paths that the cutting tools have to follow in order to make that shape automatically. The more complicated the shape, the more difficult this problem becomes. Further, it is straightforward to design shapes that are perfectly valid three-dimensional objects but that cannot be cut out at all. Almost all these problems stem from the fact that the tool doing the cutting and the device attaching it to the machine must not strike any part of the object being cut except at the point where the actual cutting is happening.

2.2. 3D Printing

Until the late 1970s the alternative primary manufacturing idea – adding material – had received comparatively little attention (except in the electronics industry for chip manufacture, where it was, and still is, ubiquitous, if microscopic). But in 1974 a joke was written and in 1977 a patent was granted that caused that situation to change.

The joke was by David Jones, writing his column under the pen-name “Daedalus” in the New Scientist.2 He made what he imagined was a tongue-in-cheek proposal that one could shine a laser through a vat of liquid plastic monomer and cause it to solidify along the path of the beam. The photons of light might thereby be made to initiate the covalent cross-linking of the liquid monomer to form a solid polymer. He further proposed that, if the wavelengths were adjusted appropriately, the cross-linking could be made to happen only where two beams intersected, resulting in an intense spot of energy at one point, and that – by computer-controlled mirror deflection – that intense point could be made to trace out the volume of a required solid object.

The patent was granted in 1977 to Wyn Kelly Swainson for essentially the same idea, though he had originally filed the patent well before the appearance of Jones’s piece.3In Swainson’s system the laser caused covalent cross-linking at the surface of the liquid monomer and the object being manufactured rested on a tray that was gradually lowered into the vat.

This was the start of the 3D printing industry, which engineers sometimes call the rapid prototypingindustry. (The latter term has become less current over the last few years – the field is evolving rapidly.) It was called “rapid” because one-offs could be made much more easily and quickly using it than by conventional numerically-controlled machining and it was called “prototyping” because it was too slow and expensive to be used for production (it could not compete with injection moulding for making many copies of a single item, for example).

The primary reason that 3D printing technology was (and is) so easy to use was that it completely eliminated the tool-path calculation problems of numerically-controlled cutting machines. Because parts are built up layer by layer, there is always a flat-topped surface with unrestricted access for the laser (or other solidifying or depositing device) to gain access to build upon. This makes it very simple to write a computer programme to control the machine from a computer model of the shape required. There are other advantages (and disadvantages) to 3D printing, but this is the most significant one.

Although it is typically slightly less accurate than cutting, 3D printing is capable of manufacturing more complicated and intricate shapes than any other primary manufacturing technology. Most 3D printing technologies work using plastics but technologies such as selective sintering of metal granules have allowed the printing of metal shapes4 and there are systems that can work with ceramics.5

2.3. Home 3D Printing

At the time of writing, the lowest-cost conventionally-made and marketed 3D printing machine (the SD-300 made by Solido Ltd in Israel) was being retailed at about €12,000. Machines range in price from that up to around €300,000 and a typical mid-range machine might cost €40,000. In quick succession after Swainson’s patent, all the obviously possible ways of making objects by adding layers under automatic computer control were patented. Those early patents are now expiring but patents for newer 3D printing techniques continue to be issued.6

One of the technologies developed was fused-filament fabrication.7 This is essentially a computer-controlled glue gun. Molten plastic is extruded from a fine nozzle and laid down on a flat plate by scribbling with the nozzle to form the bottom layer of the object to be made. The plate then drops a small distance, and the next layer is added. Because the plastic is molten when it emerges from the nozzle the second layer welds to the first, and in this way complete three-dimensional solids can be built. This is a comparatively simple technology that requires no hard-to-make parts (such as a laser).

In 2004 Adrian Bowyer realised that 3D printing was such a versatile technology that it ought to be possible to design a fused-filament fabrication 3D printing machine that could manufacture a significant fraction of its own parts.8 Conventional industry has little use for this idea: why sell a machine to your customers that means that they never need to come back to you to buy another, never need to buy spares, or even that allows them to go into production themselves in direct competition with you? But owning such a machine would have real advantages for people in general: anyone who had one could use it to make things, and could also make another such machine and give that to a friend. This is an interesting example of a failure of the market: such a self-replicating machine is an object that people would value, but that it is in no one’s interest to sell. For these reasons it was decided to make the machine and to give all its designs away free under the GNU General Public Licence on the web.9This was the start of the RepRap project. RepRap is short for Replicating Rapid-prototyper.

RepRap has been a significant success, and is now in its second version (Figure 1).

Figure 1. RepRap Version II, “Mendel” The white part on the blue tray is a component of the machine itself. It was printed from the model depicted on the computer’s screen.

From the beginning RepRap was conceived as a machine that would be owned and used by people in the home to make things, as well as by industry. The cost of all the materials needed to make a RepRap is low – about €400 – bringing it well within the budget of individuals in the developed world (as well as small communities in the developing world). RepRap makes items at a slightly lower quality than the commercial machines do, but at about 1 per cent of the cost.

Any development or improvement of RepRap design, software or electronics arises out of its users’ own initiatives. There is no central institution giving directions: users themselves invest time and thought in the evolutionary process of RepRap design. If they inspire other users they can all team up and combine their efforts. Because of the lack of deadlines for developmental goals, progress is very wide ranging, but it is also admittedly slower than in industrial R&D departments. However, personal ambition to realise their own ideas for the project drives the progress of the users’ work. Involving users in product design by providing tool kits has become more important in recent times.10

The reactions of industry to RepRap have been twofold: the conventional 3D printing manufacturers have (to the best of the authors’ knowledge) ignored it, but there has been a flurry of garage start-ups (for example Bits from Bytes Ltd in Bristol and MakerBot Industries LLC in New York) making very low cost machines that are based on RepRap technology. There is also another significant open-source 3D printer: the Fab@Home machine, which was inspired by RepRap.11 Unlike RepRap, these machines do not copy themselves. They are however all able to make RepRap machines, as are almost all the large-scale commercial 3D printing machines. The asymmetry that this introduces into the population dynamics of 3D printing has not escaped us.

Many companies and organisations have bought these low-cost RepRap derivatives or have built RepRap machines, but by far the greatest majority of owners and users are private individuals. MakerBot runs a popular website (www.thingiverse.com) where anyone may upload and download designs of a great range of items to be manufactured by 3D printers for free.

As technology has become more miniaturised, the possible functionality of a single product has massively increased. This is, of course, useful and space-saving. On the other hand these versatile devices can, because of their large functional content, be rather complicated to handle. This is not always in the interests of the customer, as seen in Cooper.12 Additionally, often not all the functions are used by customers.13Home 3D printing technology provides a way of manufacturing customised objects which have precisely the features an individual user needs.

All this may be heading towards a world in which people do not buy consumer goods any more but instead download them from the web and print them themselves. They will be able to customise them at will and may avoid some of the environmental and monetary cost currently entrained by the (often global) physical transport of manufactured goods; indeed, work is in train to make RepRap run on home-recycled plastic which would further reduce such costs. In particular, the ability of a 3D printer to, in principle, print a copy of itself, and for both machines to print further copies and so on, suggests that the cost of 3D printing may rapidly fall to the point where it becomes a widely-available technology.

Of course, having many people making few items in the home, instead of few people making many items in factories, is against the idea of economies of scale. But economies of scale are not universal: in the past people took clothes to central laundries to have them washed; now people use their own washing machines. Today electricity is generated in 2 GW power stations tomorrow it may be generated by individual photovoltaics on everyone’s roofs. And industrial printing presses offer far greater economies of scale than the home inkjet printers mentioned in the first paragraph that are – for many types of printing – replacing them.

What might this 3D printer be useful for? Working just in plastic would limit it to producing items not requiring great strength or heat resistance, whilst the fabrication volume would preclude production of large objects (other than in parts). However, as mentioned above, there is a great deal of active research going on to extend the range of materials that these low-cost systems can work with. There are many potential applications.

Spare Parts. Many appliances require unique and often expensive spare parts. Often these are small, made of plastic and relatively simple design, and would be amenable to domestic fabrication. Examples familiar to the authors include door parts for washing machines,14 lids for food processors15 and camera lens accessories.16 Significantly, provision of third-party spares has led to many IP disputes.17

Craft and Hobby Items. Craft hobbies often require plastic moulds; as with appliance spares, these are often expensive but could be produced with a 3D printer.18 A 3D printer could equally produce items directly, such as model figures for war-gaming19 or specialist add-on parts for model-making.20

Unique Requirements. A 3D printer, allied with user-friendly design software, would allow the ready creation of bespoke items. The RepRap website cites the fabrication of a unique bracket to allow an MP3 player to be attached to the coin-holder in a car dashboard.22 Individually-tailored body-fitting items such as frames for glasses could be produced, an extension of the use of 3D printing to make tailored medical implants.23

Fashion Accessories. Existing 3D printing systems have been used to make jewellery.24 Personal 3D printers could add a new dimension (literally) to many forms of fashion art, and allow customisation of personal accessories.

Although discussion so far has assumed home use of low-cost 3D printers, they may appear first in commercial or educational settings such as copy bureaux or schools, just as photocopiers were more common in such venues before combined scanner/printers brought them into the home. These different forms of use are very significant as there are exemptions against infringement of some IP rights for personal or non-commercial use, but not in other circumstances.

3. Introduction to Intellectual Property Implications

Might, however, the promise of low-cost 3D printing be constrained by IP law? Surely, it might be thought, home 3D printing of household items might infringe such rights as copyright, design right, trade marks or patents? The second part of this article will examine such questions. To illustrate the legal issues in question it will consider a hypothetical manufacturer, Acme, which produces a range of goods. Acme’s products are protected by various IP rights, such as design right, copyright, patent and trade mark. A consumer, Bridget, owns various Acme products, but finds that additional items, or spares or accessories for the ones she already has, are expensive. Being a 3D printing enthusiast, she creates 3D designs for such items and uses her personal 3D printer to print them out. She also shares her designs over the Internet with Charlie, who downloads them and prints his own ersatz Acme products. What of Acme’s rights, if any, have Bridget and Charlie infringed?

Such questions have received surprisingly little attention. A comprehensive literature search for legal references to “3D printing”, “rapid prototyping” or related terms found few matches; one referred to the copyright in 3D printing reconstructions of archaeological finds25 whilst another briefly noted 3D printing as facilitating the overseas manufacture of patented products.26 Even searching within 3D printing engineering journals found only one article considering the prospect of widespread Internet-enabled dissemination of design files,27whilst the sole relevant UK case report concerned ownership of copyright in commissioned models; their production by 3D printing was entirely incidental.28

3.1. Aim and Legal Assumptions

Sections 3 through 7 of this paper are a first attempt to fill this gap. Based on the LLM dissertation of one of the authors (SB) they aim, from the perspective of EC and UK IP law,29 to identify where widespread low-cost 3D printing may impinge on IP rights or where IP law may constrain its development. Perhaps surprisingly, under UK law it transpires that in the scenario presented Bridget and Charlie may not have infringed Acme’s IP rights. Purely personal use of 3D printing to make copies of household objects and spare parts does not infringe the IP rights that commonly protect such items, such as design protection, patents or trade marks. However, there are areas, such as the reproduction of artistic works, where IP rights such as copyright may be infringed. The advent of low-cost 3D printing may therefore pose challenges to several communities: manufacturers, who may be unable to enforce design protection against private users of 3D printing; artists, who may see a new forum for infringement of works previously difficult to copy, and users of low-cost 3D printing, who may face confusion as to what is legitimate and illegitimate use of the technology.

3.2. Intellectual Property Rights and 3D Printing

There are four main classes of IP rights that may be infringed by using a 3D printer, which may be divided into those which require registration and those which arise automatically (unregistered rights):

Copyright is an unregistered right that protects mainly artistic and creative works.

Design Protectionexists in both registered and unregistered forms and protects the distinctive shape and appearance of items (in particular those that are mass-produced).

Patent is a registered right that protects novel and innovative products such as mechanisms or pharmaceutical compounds.

Registered Trade Marksserve to inform consumers of the origin (and by association, reputation) of goods.

English common law also provides the action of Passing Off against acts that might confuse customers as to the origin of goods.

This paper will briefly introduce each right and focus on the extent to which it may be infringed by use of a 3D printer and the potential legal defences for such infringement. More detailed discussion may be found in relevant educational and practioner texts, to which reference will be made as appropriate.30 These rights interact and overlap; in particular the interaction between design protection and copyright has been the subject of much judicial interpretation. It is therefore convenient to consider design protection first.

4. Design Protection

Design protection protects the appearance of items, especially commercial products that might not otherwise be protected by patent or copyright law. Design protection may apply to relatively simple products, to components of more complex ones, or to the overall appearance of such “complex products”. In domestic law there are two main forms of design protection: registered design and unregistered design right (UDR). In the wider European context, registered designs may also be registered with the Community Design Register, whilst there is a short-duration unregistered Community design right (UCD). This discussion will concentrate on registered design (for which the domestic and Community provisions are now virtually identical) and UDR.

4.1. Registered Design

The Registered Designs Act 1949 (as amended) provides that registration of a product protects its “appearance of the whole or a part of a product resulting from the features of, in particular, the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture or materials of the product or its ornamentation”31where a “product” is any industrial or handicraft item.32 The requirements for the registration of designs (such as novelty and individual character) will not be examined in detail;33 however, some of the constraints on what may be registered are relevant to issues arising from 3D printing of spares or parts for repair of a product.

Component Parts. A component part of a complex product may only be protected as a registered design if it is both visible to the user in ordinary use (which excludes maintenance or repair) and is of novel and individual design.34 Many spare parts for cars or domestic appliances will be hidden in everyday use whilst many others, even if normally visible, may be of commonplace design, such as a pipe or washer.35

Designs Dictated by Technical Function. Features of a product dictated solely by technical functionality may not be protected by registered design.36 This constraint was considered by the ECJ in Philips v Remington37 where Colomer AG opined that protection would not be available where the design was the only way of achieving the required function. Cornish contrasts this with the decision of the House of Lords inAmp v Utilux38 under the previous UK legislation where it was held that whilst an electrical terminal could have been designed in various equally effective ways, all would have been dictated by technical function and so been unregistrable.39 (It would now be unregistrable as an invisible component part.)

“Must Fit” Exception. A design or design element is not registrable if it comprises “features of appearance of a product which must necessarily be reproduced in their exact form and dimensions so as to permit the product in which the design is incorporated or to which it is applied to be mechanically connected to, or placed in, around or against, another product so that either product may perform its function”.40 There has been little if any judicial consideration of this point, but by analogy with similar provisions for unregistered design right this provision will exclude many spares and accessories from protection if their shape is determined by the need to connect to or fit into or around another product.

The effect of these exemptions is that many items attractive for 3D printing will not be protected as registered designs. Many spare parts are likely to be components or fall under the “technical function” or “must fit” exemptions. The latter also applies to the shape of accessories and customisation items such as covers for mobile phones (but not, as noted below, to copyright artwork decorating them). Furthermore, even if a spare part escapes these exemptions and is protected as a registered design, such protection is not infringed by its use for “the repair of a complex product so as to restore its original appearance”.41 This would cover the 3D printing of a part such as a car wing panel that was normally visible and not wholly constrained in design by its function or fit, but which had to be replicated in order to maintain the vehicle’s original appearance.

Even where a registered design is copied via a 3D printer this would not be an infringement if it were done “privately and for purposes which are not commercial”.42 Both criteria must be met; it is insufficient that copying is not done for profit. Purely personal use of a 3D printer to make items will thus not infringe a registered design, so long as the purpose for which the item was made was genuinely non-commercial. In the introductory scenario therefore, even if Acme’s product is protected as a registered design, neither Bridget nor Charlie infringe that design by making a copy for personal use (although this may not be so if, say, Bridget makes an item for use in paid work from home). However, use in other settings, such as a repair shop, will have to avoid registered designs if it is not to infringe them, unless the “complex product repair” exemption applies. For non-private educational purposes, there is a “fair dealing” exemption,43 but this only applies where the use does not prejudice normal exploitation of the design,44 e.g. by substituting for purchase of the item itself. So if Charlie works in a school and uses Acme test-tube stands, if these are registered designs he could not legitimately 3D-print copies to avoid buying new ones from Acme.

4.2. Unregistered Design Right

UK UDR was introduced by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to help resolve anomalies in industrial design protection regarding the supply of third-party spare parts (especially for cars) that had culminated in the House of Lords decision inLeyland v Armstrong.45 UDR provides protection akin to registered design, but rather than requiring registration it arises automatically, as with copyright. Like copyright it is therefore only effective against actual copying.46 As an unregistered right its subsistence will be a question of law in each case.

UDR subsists in the shape and configuration of an item, but not its surface decoration or method or principle of construction.47 It also excludes features that are required for it to be “connected to, or placed in, around or against, another article so that either article may perform its function” or which “are dependent upon the appearance of another article of which the article is intended by the designer to form an integral part.”48The “must fit” exception is similar to that for registered design, whilst the “must match” exception is analogous to the “repair of complex products” provision.

Originality. To qualify for UDR, a design must be original, defined as not being “commonplace in the design field in question at the time of its creation”.49In Farmers Build v Carrier50 Mummery LJ noted:

The designs are “original” in the sense that they are the independent work of the designer of the TARGET machines: they have not been simply copied by him from the GASCOIGNE or SUDSTALL machine….Time, labour and skill, sufficient to attract copyright protection, were expended by Mr Hagan in originating the designs of the individual parts. Similarly, he originated the assembly or combination of those parts in the TARGET machine as a whole.

Laddie J’s remarks illustrate that UDR may subsist in individual parts of a design, the design as a whole, or both. Consequently, an allegedly infringing design may be analysed by being broken down into component parts, some of which may be held to infringe UDR whilst others do not. The meaning of “design field in question” was considered in Lambretta v Teddy Smith51 where Jacob LJ held it to be the range of designs with which the designer of the item in question would be familiar.

Method or Principle of Construction. In Rolawn v Turfmech52 Mann J summarised prior case law as indicating that this provision prevented UDR subsisting in what he described as abstract, generalised design concepts. Under Mann J’s interpretation aspects of design dictated solely by manufacturing technique or necessitated by sound engineering design will be likely to fall within it. As noted by the Court of Appeal in Landa & Hawa International v Azure53 this provision seeks to prevent a designer gaining a monopoly over a particular way of making a type of product.

“Must Fit” Exception. The “must fit” exception for UDR has been the subject of considerable judicial consideration. In Parker v Tidball,54 the disputed designs were for mobile phone cases, which had both to fit around the phones they were designed for and to allow access to keyboards and displays. Robert Englehart QC adopted the approach of breaking each design down into its components in order to assess whether each element’s design was commonplace and, if not, if it was constrained by the need to fit the phone or if alternatives would have been possible. In Dyson v Qualtex55the exception was held to apply to those elements of spare parts that were shaped so as to allow them to conform with the product they were to be fitted to. The “must fit” exception has even been extended to designs that conform to parts of the human body, such as contact lenses in Ocular Sciences56 – although in Amoena v Trulife57 it was held that breast implants were not caught by this exemption, as they were too flexible to be considered “constrained” in their design.

“Must Match” Exception. The “must match” exception is analogous to the “complex repair” provision for registered design. The example of a car wing panel illustrates it well, and has been cited as epitomising this provision, e.g. by Jacob LJ in Dyson v Qualtex. Dyson concerned “pattern parts”, spares which replicated the appearance as well as function of the original manufacturer’s parts, in that case for vacuum cleaners. Jacob LJ distinguished between spares for cars, where matching overall appearance was paramount, and those for more mundane items – such as vacuum cleaners – where it was less so. Without clear Parliamentary intent to exclude spares from UDR altogether, he held that the “must match” exception applied only in the former instance.58

How, then, does UDR affect the use of 3D printers to make copies of items in which it might subsist? The operative phrase is “might subsist”, as being an unregistered right it will be for the owner of the original item’s design to assert UDR. The factors listed above will determine whether UDR subsists – potentially not if the item is a commonplace design or has a shape and configuration determined by the item it “must fit” onto or around.

For 3D printing of spares, the “must fit”, “principle of construction” and “original design” requirements mean that UDR is unlikely to subsist in items that are of mundane design (c.f. the example of pipes or washers noted earlier) or where shape is dictated by the need to fit against another element of a product or is necessary for proper operation. However, as emphasised in Dyson, UDR is by no means excluded for spares, and in particular closely-matching “pattern spares” may fall outside the “must match” exception if they are destined for products where appearance is not critical.

The “must fit” exception would also apply to items such as customised covers for mobile phones although, as was noted with in the discussion of registered designs, this would not cover the use of copyright artwork as surface decoration. But of the other forms of items attractive for copying with a 3D printer many, such as craft and hobby items, would be protected by UDR and so reproducing them may infringe it. Whether they would depends on the statutory exemptions.

For UDR there is no positive provision in CDPA 1988 corresponding to that in RDA 1949 allowing private, non-commercial reproduction of a registered design. Instead, s 226(1) provides that:

(1) The owner of design right in a design has the exclusive right to reproduce the design for commercial purposes—

(a) by making articles to that design, or

(b) by making a design document recording the design for the purpose of enabling such articles to be made.

On its construction s 226(1) implies that the exclusive right does not apply to non-commercial use. This interpretation is supported by Copinger and Skone James, which notes“it seems clear enough that…a person who (for example) makes articles to a design intending to use them domestically does not thereby infringe design right”.59 In the Acme scenario, neither Bridget nor Charlie infringes any UDR subsisting in Acme’s products by 3D printing copies for personal use.

The authors of Copinger dismiss the impact of this provision, commenting that “as a person is unlikely to make many articles with a view to non-commercial purposes, it should in practice create few problems.” This may be true even with personal 3D printers, but what might change is that many more people will be in the position to make such articles. Furthermore, and in contrast with the situation for registered designs, there is no requirement that non-commercial use also be private. Indeed, by confining infringement to commercial use, defined as making an article or design document with a view to selling or hiring it in the course of business,60 the legislation appears to make all non-commercial uses non-infringing. This would include use within educational establishments, or bureau services where a 3D printer is made available for members of the public to use. CPDA 1988 provides that authorising infringement (which, by analogy with copyright, includes permitting infringing activities) is itself primary infringement of design right.61 But this only extends as far as acts that are themselves infringing, which non-commercial use is not. This is a fine point, and it may be argued that if a charge is made for such a service (e.g. at a commercial copy bureau) then the article is actually being made for the purpose of sale; equally, a private school or commercial training centre may well be “commercial” in this sense. If no charge is made though, for instance in a publically-funded school or training centre, then there is seemingly neither infringement of design right or authorisation of such. Taking the example used earlier, if Acme’s test tube stands were protected only by UDR, Charlie could legitimately copy them for use at his school, but not for sale to others.

Genuine commercial use will still be caught by s 226(1). To avoid infringement, business users will have to confine 3D printing to items not protected by UDR (such as spares within the constraints noted above), or will have to licence the right to produce them. This may well be attractive if it allows dealers to avoid holding large stocks of diverse parts, instead 3D printing them on demand from manufacturer’s authorised patterns. As will be discussed below, sale of self-3D printed unofficial spares, even where not infringing UDR, may fall foul of trade mark and passing off law.

4.3. 3D Printers and Design Protection

In summary, the exemptions for personal and private reproduction of registered designs and the exclusion of non-commercial use from UDR protection mean that the domestic use of a personal 3D printer to reproduce an item will infringe neither registered nor unregistered design protection. Perhaps more surprisingly the exclusive right provided by UDR appears not to cover such public but non-commercial users as schools; subject to interpretation, it may not prevent use in a commercial reproduction bureau. Even for commercial use, many items that are attractive for 3D printing, such as spare parts, may be unregistrable as registered designs and excluded from protection by UDR.

Two further issues arise regarding design protection, however: rights in surface decoration of an item to be reproduced by a 3D printer and rights in the design file used by a 3D printer for reproducing an item. Both of these concern copyright, and so will be covered in the next section.

5. Copyright

Copyright is an unregistered right that arises automatically on creation to protect creative works. Different jurisdictions vary as to the works for which copyright can subsist, but they generally follow Art 2(1) of the Berne Convention,62 which provides that copyright shall be available for “literary and artistic works”, where this includes musical and dramatic works and 2D and 3D artistic works. In the UK, CDPA 1988 s 1(a) recognises four classes of work in which copyright can subsist: literary, dramatic, musical or artistic. Regarding works that a 3D printer might produce infringing copies of, the artistic category is of most relevance.

Copyright infringement requires actual copying of the original. However, copying need not be exact, with “substantial copying” sufficing to infringe. The meaning of “substantial” was considered in Designers Guild63 in which the House of Lords decided that the original and alleged copy had to be considered in their entirety, the test being whether the copier had appropriated a substantial part of the skill and labour of the original author.

In contrast to registered design or UDR there is no threshold for novelty in copyright, with even commonplace works attracting protection if original;64creative merit is not required, merely minimal expenditure of effort.65 In UK law, the circumstances under which copying is not infringement are strictly delineated by a number of “fair dealing” provisions, which include the right to reproduce extracts from a work for purposes of study or review.66

5.1. Artistic Copyright under CDPA 1988, s 4

“Artistic works” are defined at CDPA 1988 s 4. The definition is not straightforward and, given the issues it poses, it is reproduced here:

(b) a work of architecture being a building or a model for a building, or

(c) a work of artistic craftsmanship.

(2) In this Part—

“building” includes any fixed structure, and a part of a building or fixed structure;

“graphic work” includes—

(a) any painting, drawing, diagram, map, chart or plan, and

(b) any engraving, etching, lithograph, woodcut or similar work;

“photograph” means a recording of light or other radiation on any medium on which an image is produced or from which an image may by any means be produced, and which is not part of a film;

“sculpture” includes a cast or model made for purposes of sculpture.

The definitions of 2D works such as paintings, drawings and photographs are relatively straightforward, as is that of buildings. However, 3D works are less precisely defined, which is regrettable as these are the category of work where 3D printers offer novel opportunities for copying. The definition of “sculpture” is unhelpfully circular, whilst no definition of the catch-all category of “work of artistic craftsmanship” (WAC) is given at all. Numerous judicial authorities have been advanced regarding the meaning of both sculpture67 and WAC68 in the context of both current and previous legislation, leaving lawyers and scholars alike with a complex legal thicket to navigate. In 2008 Mann J gave judgment in Lucasfilm v Ainsworth69 and in doing so comprehensively surveyed these authorities and sought to elucidate clear tests for the meaning of these two terms.

To qualify as a sculpture, he held that an object had to have “…the intrinsic quality of being intended to be enjoyed as a visual thing” even if it had other uses.70On this basis, Mann J excluded such industrial prototypes as the models in Metix71 (deemed by Laddie J not to be sculpture) and those in Wham-O72 and Breville73 (which had previously been held to be such). In the Court of Appeal, Jacob LJ concurred, whilst emphasising that the key point was the intention of the creator.74 Turning to WACs, he surveyed the disparate opinions of five Law Lords in Hensher75 before turning to the interpretation placed on it in the New Zealand case of Bonz v Cooke,76 where Tipping J held that for a work to be a WAC the author had to combine elements of craftsmanship and art. Whilst this may sound a trivial observation, Mann J explained it in the context of the items under dispute (helmets from the original Star Wars film), noting that whilst their creator had undoubtedly employed great craftsmanship, they had not been made for artistic purposes in their own right.77 Following Lucasfilm it appears therefore that copyright protection as a sculpture or WAC is confined to objects created principally for their artistic merit.

A further important distinction regarding 3D objects is the protection afforded to a graphic design on their surface. Even if not classified as a sculpture or a WAC, such an object may attract design protection. As already discussed, registered design protection includes its outward appearance,78 but UDR specifically excludes surface decoration.79 Such decoration may be protected by artistic copyright, be it 2D or 3D (in the latter case, presumably as a WAC), although if the object has been exploited industrially80this copyright is limited to twenty five years.81

5.2. Artistic Works a 3D Printer May Infringe by Copying

A 3D printer, particularly one capable of colour reproduction, can copy a graphic work by laying down a single layer. Of itself, this poses no novel copyright issues beyond those arising from conventional printers. What is novel, however, is that it may apply such a work to the surface of a 3D item. It is not relevant whether such a design is applied to the surface, or if it extends into it in the manner of the lettering in a stick of rock candy (this being readily achievable with a 3D printer). InLambretta82 Jacob LJ specifically rejected the suggestion that such a distinction could affect whether the appearance of an object was protected by copyright or by registered design;83 it is excluded from UDR protection in either case.

The significance of this can be illustrated by imagining in our scenario that Bridget owns an Acme mobile phone and decides to make a faceplate illustrated with Heidi Hamster, a cartoon character whose rights are owned by Acme. The faceplate itself is unlikely to attract design protection because of the “must fit” provisions of both registered design and UDR. (Related considerations would apply to, for example, a decorated pencil case, the shape of which would probably be deemed too commonplace for protection.) The decoration would be excluded from UDR though (although not registered design, if recorded as part of the registration), but its reproduction on the 3D-printed item would be an infringement by Bridget of the original copyright in it.

However, this assumes that the phone cover is a novel application of the cartoon. But in these days of extensive merchandising this may well not be the case, and the implications of this are significant. Normally the artwork copyright would last for the full copyright term, but via CDPA 1998 s 52 if it has already been applied industrially, e.g. by licensed production of items bearing it, then after twenty five years it may be copied by making articles of any description.84 The original cartoon would still receive full term protection, but its use as a surface design on products would not be infringed once the twenty five-year period had expired.85 If Bridget had copied the design from a sufficiently old product – and some well-known intellectual properties are much older than this ― then her use as surface decoration would be legitimate.

The practical effects of this are not as dramatic as might be imagined since commercial exploitation of such artwork is also constrained by laws regarding trade mark use and passing off, as discussed later. However, as will be noted, it is unlikely that either sanction prevents private use of such artwork. Well-known cartoon characters might thus be available for legitimate personal use on 3D-printed items if they have a long-enough history of commercial exploitation. (As will be noted in the conclusion, purely private copyright infringement is in any case difficult to police.)

It should also be remembered that it is an infringement of copyright in a 2D item to make a 3D representation of it. In the example given, to take a cartoon character and to 3D print a 3D figurine based on it would infringe the cartoon’s copyright – a point established with regard to the “Popeye” cartoon in the 1941 case of King Features Syndicate v Kleeman.86 Again though, if there is sufficient prior commercial exploitation of such items, then their copyright might be drastically shortened via s 52 and they may have fallen out of protection, at least for non-commercial use.

Turning to 3D items, a key question will be whether they fall within the definitions of sculpture or WAC. If not then, like the helmets in Lucasfilm,they will not be protected by copyright. They may enjoy UDR protection, but again this does not apply to non-commercial reproduction. Even if they are protected by copyright, s 52 CDPA may limit the term to twenty five years if they have previously been commercially reproduced, as may well be the case with items small enough to be amenable to 3D printer reproduction.87 Certain forms of artwork are excluded from this provision, however, such as original sculptures.88

5.3. Copyright and 3D Printer Designs

A further complication arises via CDPA 1988 s 51. This provides that the copyright in a design document is not infringed by making an article from it. Introduced to avoid the use of copyright to restrict the sale of third-party spares89 it means that even if prior graphical artwork exists of a product, if it is deemed to be a design document for that product then its copyright is not infringed by making a copy of that item. This was the case in Lucasfilm where the concept artwork for the Stormtroopers was held to be a design document for the helmets, so copying the latter did not infringe copyright in it.90

S 51 has additional and potentially more wide-ranging implications for 3D printer use. To produce an item a 3D printer must have a design file specifying its shape and, if appropriate, surface decoration. Questions thus arise of the legal status of such a 3D printer design file (“3DPDF”) and the IP rights relating to it.

Copyright of 3DPDFs. Is a 3DPDF protected by copyright? It is an original work of authorship and may be protected by literary copyright in the same manner as computer software (which, as a series of instructions, it resembles); in Autospin v Beehive Laddie J accepted, albeit obiter dictum, that such a design file of such type would be so protected.91 Additionally, that diagrammatic instructions for producing an artwork or design are protected by artistic copyright was established in Lerose v Hawick,92although under pre-1988 law, but Whitford J’s reasoning that the instructions need not depict the artwork for artistic copyright to subsist still appears sound.

Design Files as Design Documents. Is a 3DPDF a design document within s 51? S 51(3) defines “design document” as “any record of a design, whether in the form of a drawing, a written description, a photograph, data stored in a computer or otherwise.” This clearly encompasses a 3DPDF and any doubt should be dispelled by Mackie v Behringer93where Pumfrey J held that a document (a circuit diagram) embodying the topology rather than actual geometric shape of a design was a design document. Since a 3DPDF by definition does embody the shape of a design, it manifestly falls within Mackie.

Thus, although a 3DPDF will be protected by copyright, as a design document its copyright is, by virtue of s 51, not infringed by using it to make an item. It is still an infringement of copyright in a 3DPDF to copy it without authorisation, so trafficking in copies of a manufacturers’ official 3DPDFs for spare parts would be illegitimate. However, if a new 3DPDF is created for an object protected by design right, by, for example, using a 3D scanner to create a model of it from which a 3DPDF is derived, does the new 3DPDF infringe copyright in the original 3DPDF, or indeed any original design document? This point was considered in Mackie, and in the previous case ofBBC v Pally94 which it relied on.

BBC v Pally concerned the production of garments depicting the “Teletubby” characters. The claimants said that these were 2D infringing copies of their 3D creations. Laddie J held admissible an argument that the Teletubbies did not enjoy copyright (the position later adopted in Lucasfilm) and the only infringement could have been of original artwork showing them. He then held that as such artwork was a design document (there being no prior artwork as in Kleeman) then s 51 applied to it. Crucially, he interpreted s 51(1) as meaning that copyright in a design document was not infringed by any formof copying of the subject article, including making a 2D copy of it. Thus, the garments did not infringe copyright in any original Teletubby design artwork, as they had not been directly copied from them.95

Although BBC v Pally was a preliminary hearing, Laddie J’s reasoning was specifically approved by Pumfrey J in Mackie. He held that reverse-engineering a circuit diagram from a device did not infringe copyright in the original manufacturer’s circuit diagram, as the latter was a design document. It is nonetheless still true that s 226(1)(b) CDPA 1988 makes it an infringement of design right to make a design document with the aim of allowing the item protected by that right to be reproduced. But as with ss 226(1)(a), this only applies to commercial use.

The significance of these rulings for use of personal 3D printers can be illustrated by considering the use of a 3D printer to make a copy of a vase produced by Acme PLC. Acme owns copyright in the design drawings for the vase, and it is assumed here that the vase is protected either by design registration or UDR. Bridget reverse-engineers a 3DPDF for the vase and uses it to make her own copy of it. She also posts her 3DPDF on the Internet for other 3D printer users to download and use. Charlie downloads it and prints out his own vase. Have Bridget or Charlie infringed any of Acme’s rights?

Acme’s copyright in the vase design documents is not infringed by Bridget creating a new 3DPDF, by virtue of s 51(1) as interpreted in BBC v Pallyand Mackie. Nor therefore is it infringed by Bridget posting the 3DPDF to the Internet.

Acme’s design right in the vase design documents is not infringed by Bridget creating a new 3DPDF, as s 226(1)(b) only applies where there is commercial intent.

Acme’s copyright of design documents is not infringed either Bridget or Charlie making a copy of the vase, by simple operation of s 51(1).

Acme’s design protection is not infringed by either Bridget or Charlie making a copy of the vase, as neither registered design nor UDR is infringed by private and non-commercial use.

It thus seems that, within the UK at least, the provisions of design and copyright law are such that it is not an infringement to create 3D printer designs for items protected by design right, to disseminate such designs or to use a 3D printer to make copies of said item for personal, private use. As noted earlier, it will likely be an infringement to 3D-print designs based on or embodying pre-existing artwork, although in some cases the copyright for such artwork will have been greatly shortened if it has previously been industrially applied. Even so, many household items and spares will not be covered by artistic copyright and so may be legitimately reproduced by personal 3D printing.

6. Patent

Will use of a personal 3D printer infringe patent rights? As a registered right, there will be no question of law as to whether a patent exists, and the question is therefore whether 3D printer use to make a copy of a patented item falls into any statutory exemptions from infringement.

A patent grants an exclusive right to the owner for a defined period (normally 20 years) to make the subject invention, which is infringed by another making or disposing of the item without permission or offering to do so.96 “Making” includes manufacturing the invention from new and also, as explained in United Wire v Screen Repair Services (Scotland),97undertaking such comprehensive refurbishment of a patented item as to effectively remanufacture it. “Dispose” is interpreted by Terrell as commercial sale or loan or proposals to do so.98

If Bridget buys a patented product from Acme, creates a 3DPDF for it and 3D-prints a copy, she has on the face of it infringed Acme’s patent. It might be thought that the 3D printer described earlier would be unable to reproduce any invention likely to meet the requirements for novelty and inventive step needed for grant of a patent.99However, simple but genuinely innovative ideas still gain patent protection, such as the Haberman “Anyway” baby feeder100 that could in principle be copied in flexible plastic by a 3D printer. Furthermore, as 3D-printer technology improves, the range of patentable inventions the machines can 3D-print will widen, so the question is worth considering.

If Bridget makes the invention privately and for non-commercial purposes she does not infringe Acme’s patent.101This exception matches that for registered designs, and Cornish notes that, as there, this does not apply to non-commercial uses that are not private, such as educational or charitable ones.102 Equally, “experimental” use is non-infringing;103 this might for example cover testing the capability of a 3D printer to reproduce a complex, patented invention.

However, should Bridget then upload her 3DPDF to allow others to make the design, she may encounter problems. Unlike registered design law, the Patent Act includes a specific provision against providing others with the means to infringe a patent. S 60(2) provides that Bridget so infringes if she “…supplies or offers to supply in the United Kingdom…any of the means, relating to an essential element of the invention, for putting the invention into effect…”. Is a 3DPDF such a means? Supplying a kit of parts may constitute “means”,104 but it is not obvious that a 3DPDF counts as such. One interpretation would be that a 3D printer, raw materials and a 3DPDF for a patented item together count as a kit for making that item, on which basis the 3DPDF is the essential “means” that the 3D printer user would require to infringe the patent, thus bringing supply of it within s 60(2). The opposite view would present the 3DPDF as a document describing the patent, which of course the patent itself does – albeit not necessarily with the level of detail necessary to directly make the item. Judicial or legislative clarification may be required to settle the question of whether a patent is infringed by providing instructions allowing a 3D printer to make it. What is clear, despite the convoluted wording of the legislation,105is that Bridget cannot escape s 60(2) even if the use she intends others to make of the 3DPDF is, like her own, private and non-commercial.106

Where a patented invention is capable of being made by a 3D printer, it therefore appears that personal and private use is permissible, but disseminating 3DPDFs (even freely and with the intent that they be for personal and private use) may be an infringing act. Furthermore, the use of a 3D printer to repair a patented item for commercial purposes would only be legitimate if it stayed within the “remanufacture” boundary set by United Wire.

7. Trade Marks and Passing Off

7.1. Trade Marks

Trade marks are a registered right serving to indicate the trade origin of goods.107Once registered, they last for as long as the mark is kept in use. Trade marks are infringed by use in the course of trade of the same mark on identical goods;108infringement also arises through use of a similar mark on the same goods, or the same mark on similar goods.109 Sufficiently famous marks may be protected against competing use on any form of goods.110 Trade marks traditionally took the form of distinctive words or graphical devices, but more recently their definition has broadened to include shapes and combinations of colours. This widens the scope for infringement of a trade mark via 3D printing; the distinctive narrow-waisted Coca-Cola bottle is a trade mark of the Coca-Cola Company,111 and making a bottle of that shape might infringe it. It is not necessarily the case that it would, though, as there may an exemption for private use, or the mark may not be being used in what is deemed “the trade mark sense”.

The exemptions from design protection and patent for purely personal use have already been noted. Is there a similar exemption for trade mark use? It appears uncontroversial that purely personal use cannot be “in the course of trade” and so cannot infringe. Giving the Advocate-General’s Opinion in the ECJ hearing ofArsenal v Reed, Colomer AG noted that it would not infringe BMW’s trade mark for an individual to put it on a key ring. Indeed, he went further and cited both use in artistic work (e.g. Warhol’s use of Campbell soup tins) even for reward, and educational use, as being non-commercial use against which the mark owner had no rights. 112

Commercial use of a trade mark is likely to infringe it, though. If Bridget owns an Acme car she might create 3DPDFs for some of its spare parts, to allow herself to 3D print copies should she need them. One of these is a cap for the windscreen wash reservoir. It is of commonplace design and has to have a diameter and screw pitch to fit the reservoir opening, so it is assumed that no design protection subsists. It does however have Acme’s name moulded into it, a trade mark registered in numerous categories including vehicle parts, and Bridget’s 3DPDF includes this. Bridget makes the 3DPDF available online, and it is downloaded by Dave, who owns a small garage. One of Dave’s customers needs an Acme reservoir cap, so Dave uses his workshop 3D printer to make one from Bridget’s 3DPDF and sells it. He infringes no design right or design document copyright by doing so, but he has sold goods bearing Acme’s trade mark, which he has therefore infringed. If, though, Bridget had removed or omitted the trade mark, Dave could have legitimately labelled the cap as being for an Acme™ car as there is specific provision for a mark to be used to indicate the intended purpose of a product, such as a spare part.113

There are other circumstances where commercial use of a trade mark may not infringe it, depending on whether the mark is being used in “the trade mark sense”, i.e. as an indication to customers that there is a link between the owners of the mark and the person using it.114The law here is complex and subject to conflicting ECJ decisions,115 but as an example it was held in Opel v Autec that sale of a model car bearing Opel’s trade mark logo was not infringing use as the mark’s use was for verisimilitude rather than as a badge of origin. Similar issues may arise from the use of personal 3D printers due to the ease of including trade marks as surface decoration.

7.2. Passing Off

A form of IP protection related to trade marks is the common-law tort of passing off. Passing off arises where the goodwill of a trader is appropriated in a way that causes confusion as to the origin of goods, as when a competitor packages or presents products in a way misleadingly similar to that of a more established and reputable trader. Passing off requires three elements, per Lord Oliver in the “Jif Lemon” case:116 that the offended party has goodwill (i.e. an established positive reputation in trade) amongst the public; that there has been misrepresentation as to the origin of goods; and that actual damage to the offended party has resulted.117

Passing off only applies to non-private use, as one cannot mislead oneself. In the car parts scenario, Dave might misrepresent the origin of the reservoir cap, either explicitly (if it bears Acme’s logo) or implicitly (if he supplies it when asked for an Acme spare).118 Presuming Acme’s goodwill, Dave has cost it trade (so damage) and is liable for passing off. Although this is in no way different in principle to existing cases of the supply of counterfeit or misleadingly-described spares, the advent of low-cost 3D printers may increase the scope for such deception – particularly, as in Jif Lemon, where goodwill exists in the distinctive shape of goods. As noted earlier, passing off may arise even where other rights, such as copyright of industrially-reproduced artwork, have expired, if the resulting goods are sold so as to appropriate the goodwill of the original rights holder.

8. Conclusion

Hitherto a technology limited to the production within industry of models or prototypes, 3D printing is, like the computer in the 1970s, becoming available to the domestic enthusiast. Like the home computer, personal 3D printing has the potential to radically change aspects of the way in which we live; we can even envisage a society where home manufacturing of many items is the norm. However, as with home computers, such developments may have wider effects. The convergence of the Internet, digitised music and media players has had dramatic consequences for music copyright. 3D printing technology may have similar implications for artistic copyright, design right, trade marks and patents, but in a rather more diverse legal framework.

Indeed, it is clear that – within the UK at least – personal use of 3D printing technology does not infringe the majority of IP rights. Registered design and patent explicitly exempt personal use, trade mark law has been interpreted as doing so, and UDR is only applicable to commercial use. There is no such exemption for copyright, but the CDPA 1988 has been interpreted so as to provide numerous instances where copyright does not subsist for certain 3D items or is substantially shortened. Furthermore, the experience of music copyright is that purely local and personal infringements (e.g. format shifting from CD to MP3) are in practice impractical to pursue. Many attractive uses of a 3D printer, such as to make spare parts, are in any case likely to be permitted by specific legal exceptions. It thus appears that the legal environment, in the UK at least, is surprisingly favourable towards the use of low-cost 3D printers for personal, and even in many cases commercial, purposes.

Equally clearly, rights holders are likely to be concerned if personal 3D printers become widespread and effective enough to impinge on commercial exploitation of their IP rights. Indications as to how they might react can be seen from the recent history of music copyright infringement via the Internet. Both technical and legal responses have been tried, including the use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology and proposals to strengthen legislative measures.119 Will these be applied to restrict low-cost 3D printing?

Technical measures would quickly founder on the problem that, unlike music file-sharing, personal 3D printing does not produce an exact copy that can be digitally signed or protected with DRM. It is the sharing of (as seen, legitimately) reverse-engineered designs that is the issue, not original design documents. Although scanners and printers have incorporated anti-forgery measures to detect attempts to duplicate banknotes, such techniques are very specifically targeted at one well-defined item.120 Whist commercially-produced low-cost 3D printers might be configured to only use authorised DRM-protected 3DPDFs digitally signed by the rights holder, such measures would seriously constrain their usefulness and make them unattractive compared to open-source 3D printers.

It is worth noting, however, that this same point indicates that it may be some time before the level of detail and accuracy attainable by personal 3D printers becomes sufficient to seriously impinge upon the market for quality products, as distinct from utilitarian goods or spare parts (the reproduction of which, as has been noted, is in any case less likely to infringe IP rights.) Unlike digital audio and video copying, which produces perfect copies, copying of articles via 3D printing will be readily distinguishable from the original.

Legal measures might entail removing the personal use exemptions for registered designs, or making UDR enforceable against any copying. However, doing so would require amending the underlying EC Directive and would seriously prejudice the right of individuals to repair products they own. Furthermore, as Part 1 of this paper has explained, there may be policy grounds for seeking to encourage domestic manufacture of household products to reduce the environmental impact of the large-scale transport of them. It to be hoped that such factors might mitigate legislative attempts to extend the scope of IP rights, or reduce the personal and non-commercial use exceptions to them, in such a way as to constrain the development of 3D printing.

The most optimistic evangelist of low-cost 3D printing would probably admit that the household domestic 3D printer is years, if not decades, from widespread use. Its impact will be gradual, as unlike file-shared MP3s it will not immediately provide for the reproduction of faithful copies. Rather, as its ease-of-use, fidelity and range of materials increases, so will its attractiveness and range of applications. This should, at least, allow for a more measured consideration of the legal issues that will arise from such use. In the longer term, personal 3D printers may conceivably lead to radical changes in the nature of the manufacturing economy; the IP implications of such further developments have so far been imagined only in science fiction.121

* Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary, University of London.

29 It is accepted in Scottish law that the decisions of the English Court of Appeal in interpreting the Patents Act 1977 and similar IP legislation apply throughout the UK. See R Black et al (eds) The Laws of Scotland: Stair Memorial Encyclopedia, vol 19 (Edinburgh: Butterworths, 1995), para 814.

64 K Garnett, G Davies and G Harbottle, see note 30 above, s 3-127. In Infopaq International A/S v Danske Dagblades Forening (C-5/08), [2009] ECDR 16 the ECJ held that originality required some level of expression of intellectual creation, although the threshold for this was for national courts to determine.

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